Dick Powers, a three-sport athlete at Bishop Bradley (now Trinity), a star football player at Boston College, and a longtime coach in Manchester, died in his sleep Monday night or Tuesday morning at...

Control over rescheduling local elections, a controversial bail reform bill and more than $100 million in additional state spending are some of the issues lawmakers in the House and Senate will face...

Bedford man has the tickets coveted by all of Red Sox Nation, and he's not selling

Dennis Purnell was holding one of New England's hottest commodities Tuesday and not taking offers.

For Purnell there is no "best offer" worthy of the pair of tickets he has for Game 6 of the World Series tonight in Boston, with the Red Sox one win away from clinching the series at home against the St. Louis Cardinals.

"I did consider it when I got a text from someone saying they would give me $3,000 for the pair. Then I said, 'I just can't do it,'" the Bedford resident said. "I've never been to a World Series game when they could clinch."

The 1918 Red Sox team remains the last to win a title in Boston.

Boston's 2004 and 2007 World Series titles were sweeps and won on the road.

The Red Sox haven't had a chance to clinch a series at Fenway Park since 1975, when Carlton Fisk's 12th-inning home run in Game 6 forced a winner-take-all game the next night against Cincinnati. The Reds took Game 7 and the title, extending the heartbreak Boston fans had known since the last Sox championship in 1918.

Only the most optimistic ventured online Tuesday in search of finding a bargain or even a reasonable price for tonight's game. Others didn't bother.

"No, because I know you can't," said Craig Wilcox of Chester. "They're gold."

As of 5 p.m. Tuesday, tickets on StubHub started at $953 for left-field standing room and ran all the way to $11,552 each for a block of four seats in Dugout Box 49. At Ace Tickets, the range was from $949 for right-field standing room to $6,750 each for a pair of seats behind the dugout boxes.

Wilcox, wearing a Sox hat, was checking out baseball cards at Collector's Heaven in Manchester Tuesday. Demand for World Series paraphernalia at the downtown fixture has kept owners Mike and Caren Grady busy keeping the store stocked as old friends and Red Sox fans stop by to pick up memorabilia or just talk about the series.

"This is the most unexpected season I've seen in my lifetime," Mike Grady said. "People still can't believe it."

Purnell, a sales manager for a data networking company, has had season tickets for a few years now, taking them over from his father-in-law.

Purnell will be attending with brother-in-law Mike Parker, a Manchester native who is flying from Charlotte, N.C., just for the game.

Purnell had promised Parker months ago that if there was a possible clinching game, the ticket was Parker's. Even as he saw prices skyrocket Tuesday, Purnell knew he couldn't pass up the possibility of witnessing history.

"It would be more special to spend with a die-hard Sox fan than take the money," he said.

Dan Vitale of Rollinsford was taking a good-will approach in his search for tickets, hoping to find someone who couldn't go. It cost Vitale nothing to put an ad on Craigslist seeking four tickets at face value.

Considering Boston's leap from last place a year ago to winning the American League pennant, he said, stranger things have happened.

"It probably won't happen, but it's worth a shot," said Vitale, whose ad remained unanswered Tuesday afternoon. "I figured I'd just post it on there and see what happens."